Facebook chief of security joins Uber

Facebook's chief security officer Joe Sullivan has officially joined Uber, the company said via its blog on Thursday.

The cab-hailing app company has recently been heavily criticised over how it charges passengers and ensures their safety, but has continued to grow and secure funding.

Sullivan is Ubers first ever chief security officer, and during his career he has worked at Facebook for five years, spent almost seven years at eBay and PayPal, and eight years at the U.S. Department of Justice, mainly in cybercrime.

Sullivan will have the task of ramping up Uber's security, after allegations of rape and theft among its drivers, and among issues on charging passengers and ensuring their safety.

"It’s not an easy decision to leave a great company like Facebook, but this is a challenge where I get to take what makes Silicon Valley special and apply it to a product that directly impacts people’s lives everyday as they move around the world’s cities,“ said Sullivan in a statement.

Uber said last month that it had formed response teams to address safety issues involving its services across the world.

The company said in February that it had a security breach that might have disclosed the names and driver's license numbers of about 50,000 drivers across multiple states.

Uber has grown into a huge company. It has millions of trips per day in 300 cities in 56 countries.

"With millions of riders being supported by an always-growing data infrastructure, we’ve invested significantly in expanding and improving safety and security“, said Uber's CEO Travis Kalanick.